In Greensburg

Some of the leaders of the recovery effort in Greensburg are willing to go to Parkersburg, Iowa, to share their experiences and expertise with townspeople there.

An EF-5 tornado on May 25 killed at least seven people and destroyed 300 homes in Parkersburg. It’s a repeat of Greensburg, only on a smaller scale, says Matt Deighton, volunteer coordinator of the South Central Kansas Tornado Recovery Organization.

Deighton says he thinks the lessons learned in Greensburg would be helpful to the Iowa community.

Deighton says recovery leaders in Greensburg haven’t been asked, but he plans to use his FEMA contacts to open communication with people in Parkersburg. He says the people in Greensburg didn’t have anybody who had been through a similar disaster to give them advice.

Deighton says he is also going to send two groups of volunteers from Nebraska and Iowa who had planned to help in Greensburg next week to Jewell, some three hours north, to help with recovery efforts there. A tornado hit that Kansas community on May 30. More than 250 volunteers are scheduled to work in Greensburg next week.